Good morning, Washington. So wet stuff fell out of the sky yesterday, causing dozens of accidents, school closures, roofs to leak and a lot of folks to choose to just stay inside last night. Mayor Fenty couldn’t just huddle under a blanket, however, as he was attending both the candlelight vigil for the slain daughters of Banita Jacks and a handful of the 23 school closure meetings held all over town. The school meetings, as expected, were met with a good deal of hostility and anger. The Post says many of the meetings were largely empty, possibly due to the weather or the Marion Barry-led boycott meeting being held at the Wilson Building, and that especially at those meetings that were being run by lower-level officials, those who attended were visibly frustrated by a lack of satisfying answers. The weather did not keep about 70 people from attending the Jacks vigil.

One Third of Children Living in Poverty: The latest report by the D.C. Kids Count Collaborative says that one in three children living in the District continues to live in poverty. The report also says that there has been a slight increase in the city’s overall poverty rate, and an increase in infant mortality. The few bright spots include increased enrollment in Head Start programs and increased vaccination compliance.

Private Schools to be Inspected: State Superintendent of Education Deborah Gist has informed D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray that she plans to inspect each of the District’s 420 private schools as part of her plan to right the city’s floundering special education system, reports the Examiner. Gray has scheduled a public hearing on the special education system, which has come under fire of late for sending D.C. children to out of state facilities that use electric shock therapy, for Tuesday.

Briefly Noted: Toddler found wandering over I-295 overpass … Md. will abandon touch screen voting … Parking meter complaints increased in 2007 … Alexandria approves Braddock Metro development.

This Day in DCist: In 2007 we got excited about The Onion coming to the city, and in 2005 we were gearing up to deal with inauguration-induced gridlock.

Photo by mindgutter